Who better to model my mom's beautiful (and finished!!!) shawl than my closest friend, Jackie? Not only was she a very helpful model, but she is also the person who found the pattern for me in the first place. Three cheers for Jackie!!!
Now that I'm done with this lace stole, I feel MUCH more free and less stressed. It's not that the actual knitting with unenjoyable (it was a nice simple pattern), but it was the stress of moving from part to part of the pattern and feeling it would never get finished.
Running my hands over this lovely, lovely lace is worth it and, once I see my mom wearing it, I will be really HAPPY.
DETAILS:
Pattern: Large Rectangle with Center Diamonds from Victorian Lace Today by Jane Sowerby
Needles: Size 7 for lace and size 6 for knitted on lace border
Yarn: Jade Sapphire Lacey Lamb in Black colorway (2 balls, knitted double standed)
Size before Blocking: 15" by 45"
Size after Blockinng: 22" by 78"
Time: The border took 11 hours of straight knitting and the lace panel was about 19 hours...a total of 30 hours.
Dates: May 16 to August 6, 2007
Tips: If you are using this specific yarn, make sure to pull the yarn from the OUTSIDE and not the inside of the ball. I spent many hours untangling very, very tiny laceweight knots when pulling from the center. AND the balls very easily fell apart when I had gone through half of it. Also, writing down the pattern on paper made things easier for me...line by line to go with the chart. It may not work for you, but it certainly helped me. In addition, I used paper and a pen to keep track of every single line I finished and wrote down comments along the way....it was invaluable when I had to get up for a second or rush after Ben and thought I would remember where I was.
Here, take one more look at the detail....
I'm so thrilled that I can now go onto other lace....woo-hoo!! Tell me what you think!
